ROZ DENNY FOX
Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, Harlequin Signature Sagas, 2006.
How acquired: Bought.
(For Goodreads synopsis, scroll down.)
My thoughts: We first met Megan Benton (or at least, I did) in ANYTHING YOU CAN DO…, which was an absolutely delightful book. Megan was a teenager, and the hero and heroine of that book were her mother Emily, and her now stepfather, Camp. That book was followed up with THE BOSS NEXT DOOR, which starred Camp’s sister, Sherry, and which I just loved. So when I finally found a copy of this book, I was eager to revisit the characters.
Megan is an adult now, and working for the Coast Guard in Michigan. Her brother Mark has graduated from college, and Emily and Camp are expecting him to take a job in the child psychology field in their tight knit community. But he’s decided he wants to try his hand at photography and he’s come to Michigan to stay with Megan and take some pictures around the island where she lives.
I loved Emily and Camp in their book, but it was a little disconcerting to now see them heaping expectations on Mark and belittling his love of photography and his desire to pursue that. And then Megan and Mark’s grandmother, Mona, also comes to visit. Megan is not happy about that at first, as Mona and Emily have never gotten along. In fact, the whole point of Emily taking Mark and Megan on the wagon train trip in the first book was because she felt her deceased husband’s parents were interfering in their lives too much and constantly trying to buy the kids. She hoped to spend some time with them and try to ground them in reality, and when I read the book I agreed that they needed it. They started out as spoiled, coddled kids who looked down their noses at their mother and couldn’t stop talking about their grandparents’ money. Since then, Megan has come to realize her mother was right, and she’s pretty much cut off ties with Mona, but Mark has stayed close to her, and Mona provided Mark the money to launch his photography efforts.
Megan quickly comes to realize that Mona has changed, and now that she’s no longer under her late husband’s thumb, she’s sold her huge house, is planning a trip around the country, and has become a softer, nicer person, who has some regrets about the past. Unfortunately, every time Megan tries to tell Emily and Camp that, or talks about Mona at all, they get angry and yell at her on the phone, and it just really gave me bad vibes.
Ok, so getting past that. Sterling moves into the apartment below Megan’s, with his four year old son, Tyler, and his late wife’s younger sister and brother, who he is guardian of. They are sullen and angry about Sterling moving them away from New York. Sterling’s wife was a police officer, and he recoils from Megan initially because of her job, putting her life on the line. It didn’t make him very likable to begin with, but he grew on me quickly, and I knew he’d get past it eventually. And of course it provided some conflict for them to overcome, which I always like.
Megan is constantly making hot chocolate, and it inspired me to do the same, so I bought some Hershey’s Cocoa and followed the recipe printed on the label, and oh my god, it was soooo good. And my three year old granddaughter loved it also, although her mama added milk to hers because she thought it was too sweet. But back to the book.
There were some tense scenes towards the end, a couple of scary rescues at sea, and of course Sterling, and then Megan, realizing they love each other and a great happy ending. Although I never did warm back up to Emily and Camp. I definitely recommend reading the first two books, and I also recommend reading TROUBLE AT LONE SPUR, which is my favorite of Ms. Fox’s books, followed closely by ROMANTIC NOTIONS, which was my introduction to the author.
Synopsis from Goodreads: After a family tragedy, Captain Sterling Dodge and his kids move into the apartment below Coast Guard Lieutenant Meagan Benton. Soon they all learn to love and care again--together.
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